When I was young in the 80's, I was a train buff. I had model trains, pictures of steam trains on my wall and the coolest LEGO train set you could imagine. In fact, I think I still have the blueprints of Adelaide's public transport trains somewhere (I wonder if that makes me a terrorist threat?). I spent hours playing with these toys and if I wasn't, I was on my PC. One of the first games that wasn't an arcade game I ever got my hands on for the computer was SimCity, I found the ability to manage areas, control transport and deal with natural disasters (like monsters) great, and of course, one of my favourite parts of playing SimCity was creating rail systems as crude as they were. Since the creation of SimCity many simulator games have come out, we can manage planes, boats, ants, zoos, whole planets, and of course, trains. Sid Meier's Railroads! is the latest simulator out by Firaxis Games, the makers of Civilization III and IV and Sid Meier's Pirates!.

I think I can I think I can

If you are interested in building rail systems, managing companies and taking part in corporate takeover, then Sid Meier's Railroads! is for you. On the surface, the gameplay appears to be rather simple, build a railway, put some stations in different towns and run a train between them. However, if your train doesn't carry what the town needs, you won't make any income, and running costs of the train will cause you to lose money. Each city has icons that show what it requires, produces and exports. Your job is to meet the requirements of those towns to get the greatest return on your trains. To make this more complex, what you do deliver has a chain effect. If you transport iron ore to a town that requests it, that town then produces iron, which another town requires to build cars, which another town has requested. It is your job to make to make sure this chain works as efficiently as possible avoiding bottlenecks such as supply and demand and multiple trains wanting to use the same track in opposite directions. You are also able to update platforms to stations to terminals raising the revenue obtained when a load is delivered, and just to make it a little more complex you can purchase or build factories in the cities to streamline your operation and reduce transport costs.

While many of the scenarios are fictional, others are real, including both the East and West coast of the USA as well as England and Europe. Each scenario has a set of objectives, some as simple as building a railway between two towns, others being more complex such as transporting an amount of cargo between two towns. You aren't required to reach each of these objectives, however if you do you are rewarded with bonuses. You commence most scenarios in the late 1800's with only a town and a small amount of rail. Your first objective is to build enough rail to get to a destination to fulfil a requirement for your town. This could be another town to transport passengers or mail, an iron ore mine, oil well or even a cattle farm. Once you have the rail laid you then need to run a train between them making sure you are transporting what the town needs. This is very important if you don't do this not only will you have wasted money on rail and a train but you will keep losing money in running costs. Once you have transported the desired cargo to its destination you are rewarded with cash, this allows you to build more rail, trains and factories increasing your stock market portfolio. As time goes on you are give the option to take parts in actions for cheaper items such as cheaper costs to build more

Ever felt like you are going in circles?

rails, maintenance costs, or cheaper tunnels or bridges, as well as factories. As the game goes on more powerful engines are added to the scenario, as an engine gets older, your maintenance costs increase so it is always a good idea to try to keep them up to date. The newer engines also have greater pulling power meaning your cargo will arrive sooner speeding up your income.

This is where things get tricky. Sid Meier's Railroads! is also a multiplayer game, you can play against up to three other people on a LAN or Internet or just against the AI. Each player starts in the same way that a single player game would. However, you now have another level of difficulty to the game. You now have the ability to buy and sell company shares - your own or other player's. You can buy out another player, or they can buy you out. You also need to run your tracks smarter. It costs more to build bridges than along the ground, so if you spend the whole map having to build over other players' rails it will cost you a lot more money. As a player you can sell your own shares in 10% lots or buy others, selling yours will give you a quick cash injection, however it will make it easier for those who have brought your shares to buy you out at the end of the game. The same applies in the other direction. The more shares you own of another player the less it will cost you to buy them out. Once the buying occurs, the buyer has the opportunity to ether liquidate or merge the assets of the seller. If you merge the assets not only do you eliminate a player out of the game but you increase your network greatly (as well as your running costs). Once you have bought out all your opposition you have won the game!.

I have to admit I was not sure what to expect from Sid Meier's Railroads!. It doesn't have the greatest graphics, it has annoying repetitive tunes when you change trains or engines, and when the map is busy and you add more rail it has a nasty habit of making the game pause for a few seconds before it starts off again. The only thing I missed from the game was any kind of disasters, I kept waiting for a flood or a bushranger to come and wipe out a train. However that is about all I can pick with it, like the worst kind of Shockwave game it has got me hooked and like the worst type of RTS I spent hours playing maps without any concept of time when I should have been doing other things. If you are into management games and have ever been into trains or train sets you will love this game.